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Posted on 07/23/2010 7:54:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
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Lately, even the most elite in media have started to report some of the intended and unintended consequences of the rushed and ill-conceived federal health care bill passed earlier this year by the Barack Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress.
And I've had my first eye-opener. Like everyone of their generation, my parents automatically qualify for Medicare. Soon after the new health care bill passed, their personal physician retired. When they set about looking for a new one, they kept hearing the same refrain: "We are no longer accepting new patients."
Why? Because while Congress fashioned a massive -- and massively expensive -- new health care program, they have also allowed Medicare reimbursements to physicians to be reduced. Many seniors have physicians who are their contemporaries because they've been under their care for many years. As these older physicians retire, their patients are scrambling to find replacements. They're encountering "do not apply" signs on the doors of medical facilities.
Now that's change you can believe in.
Next comes the unfolding realization that the new law is stocked with all sorts of little gems that are destined to make life harder for the young and those still working. For example, many small businesses already dread the annual task of creating 1099 tax forms for those individual contractors they pay each year for goods and services. Apparently they now also will be required to issue similar forms to every corporation, vendor or other party they pay during the taxable year.
As interpreted by many, the new law suggests the need for, say, a local hardware store to search out the tax identification number of huge corporations they pay for products or services. If this interpretation of the law is correct, and it's truly enforced, business in America will be ground to a halt by a cascade of paperwork.
Also in the coming months, all types of entities touched by the new financial reform laws will suddenly learn that they are required to comply with new bureaucratic rules related to the ethnicity, or other demographic profiles, of their employees. Maybe this is well-intended, but once again the burden of compliance will be staggering.
There's more. Under the guise of a "watered down" climate bill, there could soon be plenty of opportunities to add even more costs to American businesses. Ultimately, those costs will be passed on to consumers, of course.
Take the example of the possible ramifications of requiring energy companies to generate specific percentages of their total energy output from wind, solar and other non-traditional sources. The goals being put forth are unattainable, and the inefficiencies and high costs of trying to reach them anyway will only result in higher energy bills for all. And government subsidies to support these new energy sources will mean tax dollars being wasted.
There has been a mad rush to pass all these half-baked pieces of legislation. Now, as the devilish details start to emerge, it's becoming clear that these new laws will have a huge impact on the lives of millions of Americans.
The past provides examples of how poorly designed legislation can eventually lead to sad results. Recall that lovely deal cut by congressional Republicans when they passed the "Bush tax cuts."
In a compromise effort designed to gain passage of the cuts, the GOP agreed to sunset them in 2010. They even went so far as to gradually reduce the so-called death tax to virtually nothing in the year 2010, only to allow it to revert to its punitive original percentages in 2011.
So not only does it stand to reason that mama and daddy can't find a physician. It also stands to reason that their kids might not want them to find one, thanks to the onerous "death tax" penalties if those parents live beyond this year! (Yes, I'm kidding, but this shows a perversity of the coming tax laws.)
This demonstrates that the Republicans of the Bush years could pass legislation just as stupid as anything that's been passed by Democrats this year.
But there's a difference. The GOP passed bad laws out of sloppiness, and from the presumption that they would remain in power for the foreseeable future. The legislation emerging from the current Congress and the Obama administration apparently has a different motive. The Democrats seem less concerned with keeping power in the long run and more concerned about altering every feature of the economic landscape before the nation wakes up to the realization that we have been buried under an avalanche of paper, forced to look for physicians that aren't available or are just plain out of business.
My doctor and the Medical Center he works in no longer takes in any new Medicare or Medicaid patients...............
The 0bama administration health care is all about survival of the fit. If you are healthy you live. If you need a doctor...well addios, unless of course, you are an illegal. We will go back to lots of babies dying of diseases that previously were curable, and people dying earlier in general. Forget about 80 years old. Start thinking 50 is the new 80, unless of course, you are somehow exempt or really, really wealthy.
In my opinion, the Liberal RATs and RINOs purposefully passed this genocide to do exactly as it will be doing—killing off as many disabled, elderly, and whomever else their “death panels” choose. Their national database will be their hit list with everything they can store about you and your private life. Their Death Panels will check their data base to determine who you are, e.g., a Jew, a Christian, an activist, a member of the NRA, a member of the Tea Party, a Conservative, anyone who is not one of them (the Ruling Class). I ask how does this differ from Germany in the 1930’s? It doesn’t in my opinion. Welcome to Never Again. This is all by design. Now, find the designers of this Holocaust and you will find your enemies.
This legislation is exactly what they wanted.
The administration now can shake down targeted businesses.
Why?
a) Take the donor list to the competition
b) Sick various agencies on them for a shake down
c) Watch the donations to the competition dry up
d) Repeat
Also, you will not be able to pay for all of that OTC medication your family uses (Advil, cough medicine, prenatal vitamins, etc...) with FSA pre-tax dollars. It is being eliminated.
Thanks OBAMA for the health-care taxes! -sarc
Defund them all asap. By golly the Republicans had better stop all this when they take over. In fact, they'd better do the opposite and pass sweeping legislation that cuts the size and power of government in half.
I don't believe I'm the only one who's asking for this. My guess is the Marxists went too far for everyone in the country (other than those who feed off taxpayer funds.) this time and have shown their true color - commie red.
My wife went on Medicare in May and it took her until the end of June to find a doctor what would take Medicare.
Don’t worry. Everyone will just go to the ER now.
We’re having the same problem with TriCare.
I’ve found one dr within 20 miles of my house that will accept us. Our current PCM is a 47 mile drive, door to door.
Very frustrating.
I had trouble finding a doctor accepting medicare patients 4 years ago! It will only get worse every year.
Our system will morph into something like in UK where if you
have the money, you can go outside the system.
It’s simple: Communists always do away with those who are no longer healthy slave worker ants and become a burden on the State. I could have expressed this better, but that’s the bottom line.
Throughout history, every socialist leader who has risen to power has killed off thousands, if not millions, of his own people. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot.......Oboma.
I recently re-entered private practice. I take no Medicaid (I loose money after overhead on every patient I see), nor Medicare without adequate supplemental insurance - but this is capped by the Feds at ridiculously low supplemental amounts, so I don’t see many of those either. Straight Medicare - without supplemental - I break even and neither earn nor loose money, but loose my time, so I don’t bother.
With the upcoming changes I will almost undoubtedly stop seeing the Medicare with supplemental patients as well. As it is now, the reimbursement for certain services is worse than others, and therefore much of their care that I could do is referred out to providers with much lower levels of training/credentials.
In this and many other ways, in my practice and my life, I am, like many doctors, going Galt, entering early semi-retirement. Where I live there is a horrible shortage in my specialty, but I’m not working much, and am highly selective in the sorts of patients I will see - not only insurance-wise, but I’m no longer wasting my time and patience on people who don’t want to do what it takes to get well and stay well. If someone wants to waste my time and professional training, or if they come to me to boost their case in some disability or legal or custody situation, I simply refer them on. I’m a doctor: I’ve worked hard to be able to successfully diagnose and treat illness. That’s what I’m doing now. As a doctor, it feels very clean, and enjoyable, and my patients get well.
It’s an interesting experience, especially as I face the day when I will also be forced by the government to join Medicare, and will be unable to find a doctor myself. If I and our civilization make it to that point, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Not planning on living forever anyway.
Throughout history, every socialist leader who has risen to power has killed off thousands, if not millions, of his own people. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot.......Oboma.
In the “bad old days”, many plants in Mass. had signs that read “NINA”. Translation: “No Irish Need Apply.”
Soon Doctors offices around the country will display a relatively simple sign:
“NENA” “No Elderly Need Apply”
It is called “progress”. Heaven help us...the government won’t.
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Already received info from my insurance carrier that all OTC meds or drugs will need a prescription to be eligible for FSA, HSA or HRA spending accounts.
“Certain non-drug related products- bandages, wound care, contact lens solution, condoms and others continue to be eligible for reimbursement.”
All effective l/l/ll
Thanks, B.O. /sarc
The GOP passed bad laws out of sloppiness, and from the presumption that they would remain in power for the foreseeable future.
So which one is he going with -- "sloppiness", etc. or to get the tax cuts through at all (which is how I understood it at the time!)? Bush never had the congressional supermajorities Obama has -- and too many nominally in his razor-thin majorities couldn't be counted on!
“By golly the Republicans had better stop all this when they take over. In fact, they’d better do the opposite and pass sweeping legislation that cuts the size and power of government in half. “
AMEN! However, they can defund....but passing new legislation while Obama is still in the White House...he will undoubtedly veto it!
We need to be working hard for 2012 as soon as elections in November are over.
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